While vacationing in Chicago with my family I found some time to play with some new strobe lights.

These babies are powerful. And a lot of fun. 

I wanted to see what we could do in the limited space we had to deal with. There are bay windows to subject left (not fun). Hardwood floors. Tired and grumpy sleep-deprived adults. No means of controlling light available other than positioning subjects and probably the world's most hateful cat, Harry S. Mittens.

Above is my brother Jeremy. He usually wears glasses but I had him take them off. I wanted to keep the theme of "rolling out of bed" going. This also allows us to see the eyes react to the light, bringing out the colors. 

Above is another handsome devil. Same light, same everything but subject and shooter. That shooter would be my sister Brianna, pictured below.

This, of course, is the wonderful photographer's assistant, Brianna. Much different look from her after claiming to have just rolled out of bed. But we must take her at her word. 

The only thing that changed in the above photos was the subject in front of the lens. As you can see the same light looks different on different people. This is my first experience shooting with strobes and I must admit that I loved it. I cannot wait to learn more and more tricks.

I do wish I had the right tools with me to black out the background but, as I mentioned before, we were on vacation.